THERE FOR THE TAKING - 09.07.2007
At Design Links we believe any enterprise can be all we want it to be. But more than that - any one of us can help take our organisation or company forward. No matter where you are in the structure, if you offer clear ideas that will add to your company’s reputation, enhance performance, motivate staff or customers and add to the bottom line – you are onto a winner.Of course, you have to express your ideas clearly and set out some evidence. But, believe me, if someone comes to me with any suggestion that will make my company better – I will bite their hand off. Only a fool would resist such temptation you may say. But it’s not always that simple.There is something else in the background – a fear of change, of doing something different of altering the natural order of things. The Dragon’s Den and programmes of that ilk don’t help. Okay, they make compelling television but great ideas are not always served up in business speak with talk of leverage and profitability. Why should they? I have heard so many ideas spurned by banks and enterprise start-up organisations that go onto great success.Why do we expect people to speak our language and to present ideas in a form that ticks our boxes? Our eyes and ears must be more alive to opportunity – that means standing outside our zone sometimes. It’s why I bring people in to my company to bring fresh perspectives. Like any business owner I sometimes can’t see the wood for the trees.Robert Burns wrote: “Oh to see ourselves as others see us.” How true that is, and what an awakening we can get from a different viewpoint.That’s why the approach we take at Design Links is now radically different – we want to take practical steps to help our clients see new possibilities and to step out of the kitchen. I started in business with a determination to help clients make quantum leaps forward – not just to maintain the status quo.Now here is a question. In my shoes, would you see a chink of an opportunity for a client and not mention it? That is what many of us do. Why? I think it is because of an innate fear of raising our head above the parapet and laying ourselves open to criticism. Expressing ideas always carries some risk – but the greatest risk of all is to suppress these ideas and in doing so, deny your own greatness. I know from my experience over many years and working in many settings, that lots of people hide their light under a bushel. They talk themselves out of success.That’s why we are changing our whole approach to business. We are determined at Design Links to take a message to all businesses and organisations keen to enhance their performance, reputation and revenue. “You are capable of world beating ideas, products and services.”It’s about developing self-belief and taking a more positive and ambitious approach.I am not fearful of challenging attitudes, expressions and practices that I believe hold you and your colleagues back. In fact. I am keen to work with management teams to develop a fresh vision and carve out new ideas – things to make you stand out from the crowd. I can guarantee that after a session you will have at least one big idea to run with.There are of course, those who find fault and they will always be around. It is tempting, and let’s be honest, we have all done it at some stage in our lives, to allow our ideas to be thwarted by the cynic. Can you imagine the great ideas that have been strangled at birth by those who say: “It’ll never work” or “That’s not the way we do things.”Criticism without ideas should not be allowed to flourish in our workplaces. Our organisational cultures need to change so that people who are positive and make things happen are recognised and rewarded – not simply dismissed as loose cannons. The world has only developed because of people who think and act differently. Those people who see something the rest of us may have missed. Henry Ford said that if he’d asked people what they wanted he would have invented faster horses.”Let’s think and act bigger. Let’s allow our imaginations and those of our colleagues to find expression. The time is ripe for it. Regardless of our political persuasion, a new Prime Minister at Westminster, a new Government in the Scottish Parliament and almost every local authority with fresh blood in their political ranks means there is unprecedented opportunity for new ideas, new approaches and new ambitions to be pursued.Politicians, and most will forgive me for saying this, are not the best ideas people – they need you and I, as individuals or wearing our business hat to step forward with ingenious, inventive and creative ideas.Let’s do it. And remember, there is no time like the present.Mike StevensonManaging DirectorDesign Links